Scooters, Long a Nuisance, Draw Anger as a Safety Risk

By ANDREA ELLIOTT

Published: September 16, 2003

Correction Appended

They drone loudly and zip perilously in and out of traffic. They can be life-threatening, as a gruesome accident in Brooklyn underscored yesterday. And they are illegal.

But these small motorized scooters, viewed by many as a growing menace on the city's sidewalks, bicycle paths and streets, are still sold throughout the city, to the dismay of traffic safety advocates.

The man in the Brooklyn accident, Stanislav Lazarovsky, 24, lay near death last night at Lutheran Medical Center after his gas-powered scooter collided with a van in Sunset Park shortly after midnight.

Mr. Lazarovsky had been traveling the wrong way on 55th Street near Eighth Avenue, the police said. Doctors told his relatives that he had a small chance of surviving and would suffer from severe brain damage if he lived.

The carpenter, an immigrant from Slovakia, had purchased the scooter for about $300 as a birthday present for himself two weeks earlier and already had fallen off it once, said his sister, Scama Lazarovsky.

''I had a feeling that something is going to happen,'' said Ms. Lazarovsky, 18. ''I don't think they should let people buy these things.''

Motorized scooters, also known as ''mini-scooters'' to differentiate them from larger, legal scooters like Vespas, come in two varieties -- electric and gas-powered. They have T-shaped handlebars and are typically ridden while standing, though some have seats. The gas-powered kind are viewed as more of a nuisance, both because they are noisy and they tend to be faster (traveling up to 65 miles per hour). They are also more dangerous.

While it is against New York State law to drive either kind of motorized mini-scooter in public areas, stores are allowed to sell them, much to the ire of transportation watchdogs.

''If it's illegal to use, it should be illegal to sell,'' said Gene Russianoff, a senior lawyer at the New York Public Interest Research Group. ''Most people who are buying it aren't looking to use it in their backyard or the neighborhood parking lot. They're looking to use it for transportation.''

People can be ticketed for driving the scooters in public areas, and fines vary depending on the charge, which can range from driving an uninsured vehicle to reckless driving, the police said. In some Manhattan precincts, the police have begun confiscating gas-powered scooters.

Each year, accidents involving motorized scooters cause between 5,000 and 6,000 injuries nationally, with three deaths reported in 2001, the most recent statistics available, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Those injuries are a fraction of the roughly 60,000 associated with full-sized scooters, but still cause for concern, said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the commission, in Bethesda, Md.

Almost 40 percent of injuries from mini-scooters are suffered by people under 15, Mr. Wolfson said. ''Our concern continues to be the children,'' he said. ''It's so important that you have a helmet on and that you not ride at night.''

Mr. Lazarovsky broke both of Mr. Wolfson's rules. If he had worn a helmet, doctors told his relatives, ''he would be good,'' Ms. Lazarovsky said.

Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit group in Manhattan, is working to increase police enforcement of laws involving the scooters and hopes to stop their sale.

''On top of the fact that they're dangerous, these scooters really grate on people's quality of life and they are probably a large portion of the noise complaints that the police record,'' said Noah Budnick, projects director for the organization.

Transportation Alternatives sent a letter to Commissioner Gretchen Dykstra of the city's Department of Consumer Affairs asking her to ban the sale of motorized scooters. A spokeswoman for the commissioner said she had decided not to pursue a ban on sales.

''The use is already prohibited in the city and fully enforced by the Police Department,'' said the spokeswoman, Dina Improta.

The office of Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, in Harlem, recently began a media campaign to alert parents not to purchase scooters. ''The main concern of the office was to notify the public that they are illegal and not to waste their money on these items,'' said Evette Zayas, a constituent liaison for the assemblyman.

While gas-powered scooters pose danger, some think electric-powered scooters are unfairly demonized. That is the view of Kim Anderson, a manager at NYCEWheels, a store that sells electric scooters on the Upper East Side.

''There's this bad perception that these are death traps, and they're really not,'' she said, referring to the electric scooters she sells. They range in price from $300 to $1,200 and reach a top speed of only 15 to 17 miles per hour, she said.

''They're slower than bicycles,'' she said. ''The gas ones are really dangerous. A lot of teenagers have them and they drive them recklessly. My clients are commuters and professional people who put on a suit and tie and go to work on them because the subways are too crowded.''

A few blocks from Mr. Lazarovsky's house, more than a dozen gas-powered scooters sat outside an electronics store in Sunset Park's commercial center. Across the street, another half-dozen models were on sale outside a different store.

''It's a very popular thing in the neighborhood,'' Ms. Lazarovsky said. She thought of buying one herself before her brother's accident but now has new advice for others: ''Don't even buy it. It's dangerous. It can kill you.''

Photos: Stanislav Lazarovsky is near death after a mini-scooter/van collision. (pg. B4); Electric-powered mini-scooters, like the one above, are considered less dangerous than gas-powered models. Some people want to ban the sale of mini-scooters. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton for The New York Times)(pg. B1)

Correction: September 18, 2003, Thursday An article on Tuesday about the hazards of motorized miniscooters misstated the given name of a woman whose brother was seriously injured this week while riding in Brooklyn. She is Stama Lazarovsky, not Scama.